In the speech delivered by Associate Professor Seah Kar Heng about FSAE racing car, the process of designing a racing car is really an interesting and challenging project. FSAE-stand for Formula Society of Automotive Engineers-requires each team design every parts of the car and completely make a car by their own to compete with other teams from other country in the world. In this essay I will discuss about the pros and cons of joining this project.
At first, the benefits this project brings is obvious. Students who participate in making racing car will learn much about not only advance knowledge to build a car but also social skills. Designing a racing car requires not just merely the background provided in the main course, students need to gain advance ideas from the professors of the project in the whole second year-when they are called "Trainee". This gives them very interesting experiences about making a real product and applying the theories into reality. By joining the project, they also observe about how to manage their time and skills to deal with great amount of work and pressure. They will also improve their critical thinking and problem solving skills, which are very necessary in the job of engineers. In addition, acquiring and maintaining the sponsorship to build the cars gives them real experiences of doing the business-solve the products after creating them. It can be said that this project bring the student not just a contest, what really behind it is the environment of a real engineering work when they still in the university.
On the other hand, building a racing car also has implicit disadvantages. First, each team member needs at least two years to be able to design the car, which is a great amount of time. They will not have extra time to join in other activities in the university and even though their time for study their main course will be affected. Furthermore, they must deal with safety problems when riding their own car, a car which can accelerate to a velocity of 100km per hour in just only more than 3 seconds. Every smallest mistake can lead them to risking their lives when riding it.
In conclusion, the FSAE project has both advantages and disadvantages but the benefits the project gives us overcome the obstacles we must face with. If the team member can manage their time efficiently and find a way to make their car safety, I expect that this project will be an invaluable experience in their university life.
